Red Sox/Yankees Rivalry
'The Rivalry ' The Yankees – Red Sox rivalry is one of the oldest, most famous and fiercest rivalries in North American professional sports. For over 100 years, Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees of the American League have been intense rivals. The rivalry is sometimes so polarizing that it is often a heated taboo subject, in the Northeastern United States. Since the inception of the wild card team and an added Division Series, the American League East rivals have squared off in the American League Championship Series three times, with the Yankees winning twice in 1999 and 2003 and the Sox winning in 2004. In addition, the teams have twice met in the last regular-season series of a season to decide the league title, in 1904 (when the Red Sox won) and 1949 (when the Yankees won). The teams also finished tied for first in 1978, when the Yankees won a high-profile one-game playoff for the division title. The 1978 division race is memorable for the Red Sox having held a 14-game lead over the Yankees more than halfway through the season. The rivalry has gotten more competitive in the past three years with the season series going 9-9 in 2008, 2009, and 2010. The rivalry is considered by some the best rivalry in American sports. Games between the two teams have often been broadcast on national television, schedule permitting. Background Since before the start of the American Revolution, Boston and New York have shared an intense rivalry as cities. For more than a century afterward, Boston was arguably the educational, cultural, artistic, and economic power in the United States. Boston's location as the closest American port to Europe and its concentration of elite schools and manufacturing hubs helped maintain this image for several decades. During this time period, New York was often looked down upon as the upstart, over-populated, dirty cousin to aristocratic and clean Boston. New York's economic power soon outpaced Boston's in the 19th century due to its rapid population growth and terminus of the Erie Canal, along with massive growth in the manufacturing, shipping, insurance and financial services businesses. By the start of the 20th century this dynamic had completely shifted as New York had become the focus of American capitalism (especially on Wall Street), and the change was reflected in the new national pastime. Early Glory Of The Red Sox The Red Sox were one of the most successful teams in baseball from 1901 to 1918. They won the inaugural World Series in 1903 (as the Boston Americans; they changed their name to the Red Sox in 1908) and four more between 1912 and 1918. During this period, the Yankees were often called the Highlanders, in reference to playing their games in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. (The Yankees began play in 1901 as the then-Baltimore Orioles, who played in Maryland for two seasons before moving north). Both teams had their first meeting while the Yankees franchise was in Baltimore on April 26, 1901, the innagural year of the American League. May 7, 1903 both teams played for the first time since the franchise moved to New York to be called the Highlanders. The game was marked by a fight when Boston pitcher George Winter was knocked down. Boston would eventually go on to win the pennant and the innagural 1903 World Series. The 1904 season had both teams start off opening day hosting each other. Later in the season, when the Highlanders, led by pitcher Jack Chesbro who won a record 41 games, met the Boston Americans in the final game of the season to decide the AL pennant. Chesbro threw a wild pitch and Boston won the pennant, however, the New York Giants, who had already clinched the National League pennant, had already refused to play in the 1904 World Series because they did not feel obligated to and saw the American League as inferior, thus, there was no World Series that year. Not until 2004 would the Red Sox (again) defeat the Yankees in a title-deciding game. Years later on April 20, 1912, Boston, now known as the Red Sox since 1908, open Fenway Park with a game against the Highlanders who had left their home field of Hilltop Park to play in the Polo Grounds and thus lost the name Highlanders in favor of Yankees. Tris Speaker hits an RBI single in the bottom of the eleventh to give the Red Sox a 7–6 victory. The victory would not be as memorable for the Titanic Sinking replaced it as the front page story. The team would win a team record 105 games and their second World Series title, defeating the New York Giants. Six years later, the Chicago Cubs scored two runs off of Babe Ruth in game 4 of the Series, snapping his then record World Series scoreless inning streak at 29 2⁄3 innings. However, the Red Sox win the game 3–2, and go on to capture their fifth Series title, their third in the past four years, and fourth in the past seven years. The Babe Trade In 1916, Harry Frazee purchased the Red Sox on credit for $500,000. He felt he had to get out of his financial situation, so in 1919 he traded several players including Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Ruth's arrival in New York simultaneously launched the Yankee dynasty while ravaging the Red Sox. While the Red Sox' five World Series titles were a record at the time, 1918 would be the team's last championship for 86 years. Meanwhile, Ruth's home run-hitting prowess anchored the Yankee line-up, which became known as "Murderers' Row" in the late 1920s. The Yankees reached the World Series seven times during Ruth's New York years, winning four. This abrupt reversal of fortunes for the Red Sox marked the beginning of the supposed "Curse of the Bambino." But it was not the Ruth deal alone that reversed the fortunes of both clubs. Curse Of The Bambino From 1920 through 2003, the Yankees won 26 World Series championships and 39 pennants, compared to only four pennants for the Red Sox. To make matters worse, in every year that the Red Sox won the pennant 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986 they lost the World Series four games to three, leaving them with no World Series titles. During this time, the Red Sox finished second in the standings to the Yankees on twelve occasions in 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1949, 1978, and every year from 1998 to 2003. During the 84-year period, the Yankees finished with a better regular-season record than the Red Sox 66 times, leading one sportswriter to quip that the Yankees' rivalry with the Red Sox was much like the rivalry "between a hammer and a nail." Just two years after Ruth's sale, he went on to have a record setting season—statistically, one of the greatest in major league history for a batter. This propelled the Yankees to capture their first pennant and face their rival Giants. On October 5, 1921, the Yankees appear in and win their very first World Series game. However, Ruth got hurt during the Series, and the Yankees eventually drop the last three games, losing the Series five games to three to the Giants in the last ever best-of-nine Series. Both the Yankees and Giants would play in the 1922 World Series as well, a series that would be the Yankees' last in the two teams' shared stadium at the Polo Grounds as the Giants served the Yankees an eviction notice after the 1921 season. The Yankees would eventually move across the Harlem River to the Bronx into Yankee Stadium. April 18, 1923 would be the day both the Red Sox and Yankees play for the first time at the Yankees new home. Over 74,200 people watched the Yankees defeat the Red Sox, 4–1, in the first game played at the stadium. Babe Ruth hits the new stadium's first home run, christening the stadium as "the House that Ruth Built." Ruth would finish the year with a .393 batting average, while being walked a then-record 170 times. The Yankees met the New York Giants for the third straight year in the World Series. The 1923 World Series resulted with the Yankees winning their first World Championship. Several lesser known moments in the rivalry occurred during the 1930's. Pitcher Red Ruffing was traded in 1930 from the Red Sox to the Yankees. Ruffing, who had limited success with the Red Sox, would go on to a Hall of Fame career with the Yankees winning 6 World Series with them. August 19, 1934 would show to be the then largest crowd in the history of Fenway Park, 46,766, to witnesses Babe Ruth's final game at Fenway Park in a Yankees uniform in a game Red Sox would win. A year later, the crowd record would be broken again when the two teams met again on September 22, 1935. Record crowds would also show up at Yankee Stadium. On May 30, 1938, before 83,533 spectators, Yankees outfielder Jake Powell and Red Sox player-manager Joe Cronin fought on the field and beneath the stands. Both players were fined and suspended for 10 games. Both the Yankees and Red Sox would finish first and second in the League respectively that year as well as the following. The Yankees went on to sweep the Chicago Cubs in the World Series and the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series a year later. Category:Information 1940's-1960's: Teddy Ballgame, Joltin' Joe the Yankee Clipper The rivalry intensified in 1941 when Ted Williams of the Red Sox bats .406, becoming the last player to bat over .400 in a season. Despite his historic accomplishment, Williams loses the AL MVP race to the Yankees' Joe DiMaggio, who has a record 56-game hitting streak. Williams later reminisced about his rivalry with DiMaggio saying "Joe DiMaggio was the greatest all-around player I ever saw. His career cannot be summed up in numbers and awards. It might sound corny, but he had a profound and lasting impact on the country." Both teams almost swapped the two legends. In 1947, Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey and Yankees GM Larry MacPhail were rumored to have verbally agreed to trade DiMaggio for Williams, but MacPhail refused to include Yogi Berra and the deal fell through. The Red Sox finally stopped the Yankees momentum in 1946. They would play in their first World Series game since 1918, having finished ahead of the Yankees in the American League for the first time since trading Babe Ruth. Since their last pennant in 1918, the Yankees had won 14 pennants and 10 World Series. Although the tide against the Yankees had turned, Boston would eventually lose the Series in game seven to the St. Louis Cardinals. Former legendary manager for the Yankees, Joe McCarthy came out of retirement after a feud with Yankee ownership to sign with the Red Sox as their manager in 1948. Both the Yankees and the Red Sox are involved in a tight pennant race with the Cleveland Indians until the final weekend. The Red Sox eliminated the Yankees in the final series at Fenway Park, overcoming four DiMaggio hits in the final game to tie Cleveland for the pennant. The situation forced the first-ever one-game playoff in AL history, which the Indians won 8–3 at Fenway Park. Boston missed out on a chance for its first all-Boston World Series, as the Indians went on to defeat the Boston Braves in the Series. A year later, the Red Sox entered the final series of the season at Yankee Stadium needing only one win over the Yankees to advance to the World Series. The Red Sox found themselves up by one game with two games left against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. The Sox lost 5-3 on the last day of the season after falling 5–4 the previous day, resulting in the Yankees winning their 16th American League pennant. The Yankees went on to defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1949 World Series for their 12th World Championship. The 1951 season opened up at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox in the debut of PA announcer Bob Sheppard. Sheppard would go on to serve PA duties at Yankee Stadium for another 56 years. On September 28 of that year, Yankees pitcher Allie Reynolds pitched a no-hitter against the Red Sox. A year later, Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall and Yankees second baseman Billy Martin exchanged insults before a game in Boston, and ended up fighting in the tunnel under the stands. The fight was broken up by Yankees coaches Bill Dickey,Oscar Melillo, and Boston starting pitcher Ellis Kinder. Piersall changes out of his bloody shirt and promptly starts another fight with teammate Maury McDermott. The Red Sox go on to win 5-2 with Piersall sitting the game out. Starting in 1949, the Yankees began a streak of five consecutive World Series titles from 1949 to 1953 and breaking their previous streak of four straight titles from 1936 to 1939. 1961-1980: Milestones, Fights, Neck and Neck Finishes and the Bucky Dent Game The 1961 season saw the famous chase of Babe Ruth's 1927 single season home run record by Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. Both sluggers would battle each other for the record until Mantle got injured late in the season, leaving Marris the only one in the hunt. On the last day of the season, Maris broke the record with his 61st home run of the year off Red Sox rookie pitcher Tracy Stallard at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won the game 1–0 and clinched their 26th American League pennant, on their way to their 19th World Series title. ﻿ ﻿ ﻿ Category:Information